This is an awesome question, and something that took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. While I admittedly try to wear glitter polishes less frequently because of the removal process, these tips should make things easier.

Apply your glitter polish over another polish, such as a creme or a jelly. Not only will this make it easier to remove your glitter coat, it can add some dimension to your look. While many glitter polishes are intended to be thickly applied, some are not, and benefit from a different color beneath. Below is a picture of Deborah Lippmann‘s Happy Birthday (on ring finger only) over Essie‘s East Hampton Cottage. You can see the Essie shade underneath the glitter – I think it gives a little somethin’ somethin’ to an otherwise typical manicure.

So you want to take it off? Okay. (It WILL take you longer than your average polish removal, but I’ve found this process cuts back on time.) Now is not the time to be stingy with cotton balls – though I often play “how few can I use?” when I usually take off my polish! One per finger at LEAST is my suggestion. Using acetone-based nail polish remover, soak a cotton ball and apply it to your nail. Don’t start removing yet! Press the ball to your nail and LEAVE IT. Do this for each finger on that hand. (The manicure that I’m demonstrating with was not done over a base color.) When you’re done, it should look something like this:

Now that you look like some sort of cotton-claw monster, let that sit for at least thirty seconds. Really. When you’re ready, press your cotton ball firmly to your nail and rock it from side to side horizontally to ensure that the acetone is really doing its job. Then push the ball straight off your nail. A lot of the glitter should have come off, but if it’s not all gone, don’t worry – use the other side of the same puff and only remove in one direction, instead of scrubbing up and down. Glitter is not so gentle on the nails (not to mention it will try to stick to everything). Here’s what my nail looked like after using this technique:

(Not bad, right? I’ve found that clusters of big pieces like these tend to cling on more than little flakes of glitter. You can come back to this one later with a clean cotton ball.) Carry on with your removal process. It’ll take about fifteen minutes. When you’re done, tend to your nails with a nail buffer – the surface may be scratched from those huge chunks of glitter, which will not benefit any future manicures.

I hope that helped you, Jackie, and anyone else who loves glitter! A glitter addiction is hard to break, but with these steps you don’t have to give it up. What are everyone’s favorite glitter polishes?